Dell’s Linux Ultrabook gets more pixels, European availability

New 1080p screen addresses the biggest problem Ars readers had with the device.

We last reported on Dell's Ubuntu-powered XPS-13 Developer Edition at the tail end of November 2012, when the laptop was released. Comments from the Ars community on the device were generally positive, though one overwhelming sentiment seemed to dominate: the XPS-13's 1366×768 resolution was totally insufficient for the laptop's intended audience and use case.

The complaint has been heard. In postings to the Dell Community site and to Dell Web Vertical Director Barton George's blog, Dell has announced that as of today, the XPS-13 Developer Edition will be equipped with a "1080p" screen.

In this case, "1080p" means a 1920×1080p screen. The laptop's US Dell store page doesn't specify the panel type, though it does note that it features a brightness of 350 nits and almost a 180 degree viewing angle, so it's almost certainly an IPS panel.

The specs are otherwise unchanged—the Ultrabook comes with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SATA III SSD, and a low-voltage Ivy Bridge i7-3537U CPU. It comes preloaded with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and a few additions, including cloud-oriented software meant to ease the task of setting up complex development environments. All of the code that has been contributed to making the base XPS-13 work with Ubuntu out of the box is fully open-sourced. Code for the Cypress trackpad, one of the most fiddly bits, has even been made available upstream.

No hardware customization options are available, and the price for the XPS-13 Developer Edition is $1,549.99.

The other bit of news is that the Developer Edition is no longer exclusively available in Dell's US store. Barton George's blog post reveals that the laptop will be available for purchase in a number of European countries within a week and in several more EMEA countries after that:

Across the pond Sputnik 2 has started rolling out and will be available online next week. I will post the links when they become available but here is the list of the countries where Sputnik 2 will be landing:

59 Reader Comments

What about letting me order it from Amazon or Newegg or my online retailer of choice? I like to read reviews from those third party sites as well. Reading reviews about Product X on Company X's website always makes me a little wary.

Well, that revision only came nearly four months too late for me. I'd have bought this in an instant if it had been available with the 1080p screen when it was first made available. They might have gotten a sale back then but that terrible display was simply unacceptable and completely put me off it.

Looks nice, but I'm not sure the price is reasonable. Perhaps a slightly lower priced version with a smaller SSD, less RAM, a cheaper processor, but the same high-quality screen would find more success.

Looking much better than the last outing! Might have picked one of these up if I knew it was coming, but ended up buying an rMBP back in December. Hopefully, it sees enough success to warrant continued updates and support.

Looks nice, but I'm not sure the price is reasonable. Perhaps a slightly lower priced version with a smaller SSD, less RAM, a cheaper processor, but the same high-quality screen would find more success.

It all obviously depends on what you're going to be doing with the laptop, but a device like this is targeted at developers and at accelerating devops. I wouldn't think that anyone would want to be running a dev environment and doing builds and deployment with less than 8GB of RAM. Maybe a smaller SSD, depending on what you're developing, but honestly, if Dell had released this with a 128GB SSD instead of 256, they'd draw fire for the SSD being too small.

That certainly moves the device from 'completely irrelevant' to 'worth considering'.

Still makes me sad to see it right above an article about some phone coming out with a screen of the same resolution...

Whereas most people use their phone within 12-18" from their eyes most people I've known use their laptop from a distance at least twice as far. In relative terms a 5.5" screen at 12" distance looks like a 16.5" screen at 36".

I take this back, the windows version seems to have a 720p screen even though it boasts you can upgrade it to a 1080p screen -- Buying a laptop from Dell is still confusing as ever....

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I understand that supporting a Linux laptop may not be financially feasible in the short term, but why would you price the Linux version HIGHER than the identical windows version..... Keep in mind, that Dell is saving ~$50 on no including a windows license with the product.

Seeing as most Linux users are pretty comfortable wiping their machine every 6-12 months, I don't see why I would shell out the extra $50 for having Dell pre-install Ubuntu for me:

That certainly moves the device from 'completely irrelevant' to 'worth considering'.

Still makes me sad to see it right above an article about some phone coming out with a screen of the same resolution...

Whereas most people use their phone within 12-18" from their eyes most people I've known use their laptop from a distance at least twice as far. In relative terms a 5.5" screen at 12" distance looks like a 16.5" screen at 36".

I hear this argument over and over again...

Developers, engineers, scientists, etc. don't want high resolution screens because they think their eyes are super-human and can resolve those tiny pixels.

I understand that supporting a Linux laptop may not be financially feasible in the short term, but why would you price the Linux version HIGHER than the identical windows version..... Keep in mind, that Dell is saving ~$50 on no including a windows license with the product.

Dell won't get any kickback from pre-installed applications (AV et al). Not having access to their financials, I don't know if they're making more or less with the Ubuntu configuration, but it seems to make sense.

Seeing as most Linux users are pretty comfortable wiping their machine every 6-12 months, I don't see why I would shell out the extra $50 for having Dell pre-install Ubuntu for me

Huh? I have been upgrading in place the same install for several years now. It is not Ubuntu tho, and i am considering my alternatives.

Anyways, I am surprised to see this not only continuing on but actually getting a "upgrade". I would have thought that with the massive loan MS gave Dell to take the company private the first casualty would have been this project.

If you want to use high resolutions on a 13" screen to have more screen real estate you still need super-human eyes to resolve all those tiny characters and icons and buttons. Well, at least you need young and good eyes.

I understand that supporting a Linux laptop may not be financially feasible in the short term, but why would you price the Linux version HIGHER than the identical windows version..... Keep in mind, that Dell is saving ~$50 on no including a windows license with the product.

Seeing as most Linux users are pretty comfortable wiping their machine every 6-12 months, I don't see why I would shell out the extra $50 for having Dell pre-install Ubuntu for me

Dell is attempting to recoup the extra work put into the laptop. It's not just a question of pre-installing Ubuntu for you--they've done a fair amount of coding, and they're also attempting to add value with the cloud launcher and profile tool.

It's wrongheaded to think of this as just an XPS-13 with Linux preinstalled. It's more correctly an XPS-13 with Linux pre-installed and preconfigured to work perfectly with the hardware--trackpad, wifi, video card, everything, without having to dick around in the command line--and with several devops-oriented tools also preconfigured and ready to go. Plus, there's a marketing effort behind the whole program that must be paid for, along with the programming time of the Dell folks who contributed code to the project. It's been pointed out that Dell doesn't get money from attaching crapware to this laptop, so that bumps the price as well.

Finally, on top of all of it, Dell needs to actually make some money. The margin on consumer hardware is pretty damn thing, and a company isn't going to make something that isn't profitable.

Finally, on top of all of it, Dell needs to actually make some money. The margin on consumer hardware is pretty damn thing, and a company isn't going to make something that isn't profitable.

I'm curious to what extent Dell might be investing in a non-Windows line of business here. From that perspective, they'd be willing to eat some upfront costs in exchange for making "Dell Linux for Business Users" an actual thing down the road. With Microsoft getting into the OEM game, I'd be surprised if even a diehard Windows OEM like Dell isn't examining its options.

Plus, there's a marketing effort behind the whole program that must be paid for, along with the programming time of the Dell folks who contributed code to the project. It's been pointed out that Dell doesn't get money from attaching crapware to this laptop, so that bumps the price as well.

Finally, on top of all of it, Dell needs to actually make some money. The margin on consumer hardware is pretty damn thing, and a company isn't going to make something that isn't profitable.

I think the price of this is more determined by market forces than their cost; their marginal cost, after all, doesn't include dev work.

In fact, I just went through and looked, and this is basically identical (display and OS excepted) to the top-line 13-inch MBA, which costs essentially the same at just over $1500. So I wouldn't consider the cost excessive.

Not a fan of Dell machines not going to lie, had a lot of friends with Dell laptops that just go kaput for no real reason after 2 years. If I'm popping down $1500, the hardware better hold up.

Wished other manufacturers would release Linux-capable laptops (or at least laptops that aren't super hard to configure to get Linux working).

I've never had issues with their XPS or Latitude lines. I know people who have shelled out $500 for an Inspiron then been surprised when it died after 18 months, but I always figured that being getting what you pay for. But Dell always do pretty well in reliability studies, they're just so darn common that it's not hard to hear about a few people who had one go on them.

$250 gets you 3 years support though (although I can't figure out if it's 3 years pro support then 3 years limited, or if somehow it's both concurrent, not quite sure what they both mean)

It looks like Dell did pretty much everything right with this laptop though, good hardware, portable, good software support. $1500 gets you something you don't need to dick around with, which makes a huge amount of sense if you just want to get to the developing part of your job. I could see a lot of companies being interested simply to cut down on support costs, if what Dell has done on the software side is actually good.

Not a fan of Dell machines not going to lie, had a lot of friends with Dell laptops that just go kaput for no real reason after 2 years. If I'm popping down $1500, the hardware better hold up.

Wished other manufacturers would release Linux-capable laptops (or at least laptops that aren't super hard to configure to get Linux working).

I've never had issues with their XPS or Latitude lines. I know people who have shelled out $500 for an Inspiron then been surprised when it died after 18 months, but I always figured that being getting what you pay for. But Dell always do pretty well in reliability studies, they're just so darn common that it's not hard to hear about a few people who had one go on them.

This is how i figure all brands get bad reps. People buy their bottom of the barrel blue light specials, have it break down on them within a week or so of warranty running out, and so proclaim the whole brand as rotten. What they do not get is that most of the engineering and such go into the models primarily sold to other companies. Thinkpad, Latitude, Probook, Travelmate, all are lines aimed at business use where reliability is life or death.

Need a frank opinion folks..I was actually looking to buy a 1920x1080 13.3" ultrabook with a minimum of 128 GB SSD.I have been comparing this to an Asus Zenbook UX31 which I can get for about $900.Both have the same screen, the difference:1. Processor: i5 (Asus) vs i7 (Dell)2. RAM: 4GB (Asus) vs 8 GB (Dell)3. SSD 128 GB (Asus) vs 256 GB (Dell)4. In built Linux support (with working drivers): Self (Asus) vs Pre-installed (Dell)

Considering that most of my work is done over vnc, the physical traits seem to give me very low ROI and considering that I don't want to use ubuntu (not hating ubuntu just that my preference is some other distro), is there any reason why I should be shelling out $1500 when I can get my work done at $900?

Thanks for any inputs..

In reference to a post above: " if Dell had released this with a 128GB SSD instead of 256, they'd draw fire for the SSD being too small."

What's wrong in giving an option? If somebody wants 128 GB or 256 GB, let them customize it. This is not some $300-400 laptop. If someone is spending $1000 or more, there should be some flexibility to customize.

Need a frank opinion folks..I was actually looking to buy a 1920x1080 13.3" ultrabook with a minimum of 128 GB SSD.I have been comparing this to an Asus Zenbook UX31 which I can get for about $900.Both have the same screen, the difference:1. Processor: i5 (Asus) vs i7 (Dell)2. RAM: 4GB (Asus) vs 8 GB (Dell)3. SSD 128 GB (Asus) vs 256 GB (Dell)4. In built Linux support (with working drivers): Self (Asus) vs Pre-installed (Dell)

Considering that most of my work is done over vnc, the physical traits seem to give me very low ROI and considering that I don't want to use ubuntu (not hating ubuntu just that my preference is some other distro), is there any reason why I should be shelling out $1500 when I can get my work done at $900?

Thanks for any inputs..

In reference to a post above: " if Dell had released this with a 128GB SSD instead of 256, they'd draw fire for the SSD being too small."

What's wrong in giving an option? If somebody wants 128 GB or 256 GB, let them customize it. This is not some $300-400 laptop. If someone is spending $1000 or more, there should be some flexibility to customize.

I think you want the 8GB RAM upgrade. Proc and SSD are really up to you to decide if it is worth it.

As for the configurability, they probably don't sell the Dev edition in the same way. At the volume they sell them, they probably need to have one configuration that is imaged on to their stock. Extra configuration is very expensive and requires high volume sales to be affordable.

Need a frank opinion folks..I was actually looking to buy a 1920x1080 13.3" ultrabook with a minimum of 128 GB SSD.I have been comparing this to an Asus Zenbook UX31 which I can get for about $900.Both have the same screen, the difference:1. Processor: i5 (Asus) vs i7 (Dell)2. RAM: 4GB (Asus) vs 8 GB (Dell)3. SSD 128 GB (Asus) vs 256 GB (Dell)4. In built Linux support (with working drivers): Self (Asus) vs Pre-installed (Dell)

Considering that most of my work is done over vnc, the physical traits seem to give me very low ROI and considering that I don't want to use ubuntu (not hating ubuntu just that my preference is some other distro), is there any reason why I should be shelling out $1500 when I can get my work done at $900?

Thanks for any inputs..

In reference to a post above: " if Dell had released this with a 128GB SSD instead of 256, they'd draw fire for the SSD being too small."

What's wrong in giving an option? If somebody wants 128 GB or 256 GB, let them customize it. This is not some $300-400 laptop. If someone is spending $1000 or more, there should be some flexibility to customize.

I think you want the 8GB RAM upgrade. Proc and SSD are really up to you to decide if it is worth it.

As for the configurability, they probably don't sell the Dev edition in the same way. At the volume they sell them, they probably need to have one configuration that is imaged on to their stock. Extra configuration is very expensive and requires high volume sales to be affordable.

Unfortunately that's the problem. No ultrabooks available with 8 GB RAM.This Dell one is the first that I have seen.

If you want to use high resolutions on a 13" screen to have more screen real estate you still need super-human eyes to resolve all those tiny characters and icons and buttons. Well, at least you need young and good eyes.

Or, at least you need a good Optometerist or Opthamalogist. My uncorrected vision is so poor that I wouldn't trust myself to drive a vehicle 15 feet without hitting something, but my RGP lense corrected vision is better than 20/20.

Seeing as most Linux users are pretty comfortable wiping their machine every 6-12 months, I don't see why I would shell out the extra $50 for having Dell pre-install Ubuntu for me:

I've been using ArchLinux since 2008 and haven't wiped my installation since then... Where's alongside it, the windows XP and later 7 install has been wiped quite a few times, and ultimately completely removed for about 1.5 years (or may I say, replaced by VM's).

This thing has been trough a partial partition loss, a lot of hardware upgrades, about 20 major kernel versions, big shifts in the base distro structure, new infrastructure deployed like pulseaudio, udisks, polkit, hal, udev, xorg.conf-less xorg, and a whole slew of other stuff. It even took a shift from 32bit to 64bit like a champ without ever reinstalling the damn system!

Even the sound stack completely changed, wheres before buggy alsa userspace was pretty much the standard solution, it has been replaced by a very robust pulseaudio solution, and later extended with a system-wide real-time Jack DSP system where I can get optimal binaural surround use any great lv2 plugin to enhance sound and output low latency audio while playing Team Fortress 2.

And about that, it has also been trough so much that at the beginning I was happy I could play few games like Unreal Tournament 99, but now It hosts a full Minecraft server AND client, one of the TOP 10 best seller games for PC! It even display a shiny list of 50+ Linux games on the native Steam client, which features another TOP 10 best seller, with a few more to come!

You can certainly have a very resilient linux _desktop_ system, but I won't deny that this is probably not common for non rolling release distros, and also, for now at least, rolling release distros require quite a bit of knowledge by the user when each major upgrade path comes by. As a reward, you get to live in the exciting world of cutting-edge software.

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.